LGBT Activists to Transgender Heckler: Don't Antagonize the King

Apparently pointing out transgender immigration detainees are subject to abuse under this administration is bad form.

Something unexpected happened yesterday when President Barack Obama gathered top gay, lesbian and transgender activists at the White House to pat itself in the back during Gay Pride Month. As the president delivered a speech about all the advancements in civil liberties for gays, lesbians and transgender citizens during his term, one person in the crowd attempted to point out that Obama's executive branch doesn't exactly have a spotless record in the treatment of certain minorities, even now.

Jennicet Gutierrez, an undocumented transgender immigrant, interrupted the president at the start of his speech to point out that LGBT immigrants are being abused in detention centers and to call for their release.

There are a lot of ways the gathered activists in the presidents could have responded to this. Certainly, nobody likes a metaphorical turd in the punch bowl (or, one imagines, an actual one), and given the seismic cultural shift in attitudes toward the gay community, I doubt anybody would argue that celebrations are inappropriate. Nobody likes having ugly things pointed out to them on a happy occasion.

But the response was very telling, and much uglier than having some heckler point out that problems still exist. The gathered activists loudly attempted to shush her, then they booed her, chanted "Obama" to drown her out, yelled "Shame on you!" at her, and cheered when she was escorted out.

Obama himself also said "Shame on you," to the heckler like she was a small child having a temper tantrum at a grocery store. He added that he was fine with hecklers, but not when they were in his house "eating the hors d'oeuvres" and "drinking the booze," which is has some amazingly awful subtext if you think about it for just a few seconds. The president gave you food, so you should be nice to him!

Watch the encounter below:

The press largely seemed uninterested in engaging in the issue Gutierrez raised, focusing on the president's "not in my house" response and shaming. Over at CNN, Wolf Blitzer described the heckling as "an awful situation," and then later as "an ugly situation" that the president "handled well," as though something potentially dangerous had happened and not just a person yelling across the room.

Gutierrez was identified as an activist with Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement (TQLM). Reason contacted the organization and spoke to National Coordinator Jorge Gutierrez (no relation to Jennicet) to follow up over Jennicet's comments and the crowd and president's reactions. Jorge Gutierrez noted that the crowd's response was indicative of the gap between the interests of some mainstream lgbt community leaders and the needs of immigrants and minorities within the community.

"Knowing that we have trans women of color incarcerated and put into detention centers," Jorge Gutierrez says, "those priorities have not been part of the mainstream LGBTQ agenda. This is clear proof of that disconnection." At one point, somebody in the crowd yelled, "This is not for you. This is for all of us," at Jennicet, a response Jorge describes as "very disheartening."

When Obama was able to get to his speech after Jennicet was escorted out, he did speak about how transgender people face "terrible violence and abuse and poverty here at home and around the world." But he didn't touch on what Jennicet or Familia TQLM is talking about. Jorge sent to Reason a sample letter for citizens to send to the president to call for an end to the detention of gay, lesbian and transgender people by the Department of Homeland Security. One of the statistics they note in the letter is that 20 percent of substantiated sexual assaults that have taken place among those detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were against transgender detainees, according to a government report. Their letter notes:

"Detained LGBTQ people continue to experience extraordinary rates of pervasive physical and sexual abuse in ICE custody. New rules calling for 'individualized' housing decisions and use of solitary as a 'last resort' have not led to any perceptible changes from actual conditions facing detained LGBTQ immigrants. They are still subjected to prolonged, damaging isolation that fails to protect them from abuse, and transgender women continue to be housed in all-male jails and detention centers."

The letter also points to a study showing that transgender women held in men's prisons were 13 times more likely to be raped than the general population.

Asked whether anybody from the administration attempted to speak to anybody from Familia about their concerns and activism after the event, Jorge said they did not. He is hoping that, if the Supreme Court's upcoming ruling on gay marriage favors the gay community, the treatment of LGBT individuals detained by ICE is treated as more of a priority for other activist groups.

And in conclusion, here's a paragraph from Obama's prepared speech, read out completely without irony after shaming a Jennicet for challenging the administration's record:

And the truth is that courage comes in a lot of forms. There's courage in the moment of danger — the kind our troops show in battle. There's the courage of resilience and perseverance — what we see in our brave wounded warriors. There's moral courage of the sort we saw in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Harvey Milk, who fight for their ideals. And then there's the kind of courage it takes to be true to yourself even if society doesn't always accept or understand you.

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I guess I’m old fashioned. I think interrupting a speaker and heckling is incredibly rude and bad form. I don’t care if I agree with the heckler or not. I don’t care if I agree with the speaker or not.

Would Shackford be so accommodating of this behavior if it had been someone interrupting Rand Paul talking about bringing opportunity to poor neighborhoods and calling him a racist?

It actually is kind of like a “small child having a temper tantrum at a grocery store”.

Especially if you’re holding Obama up as the emperor who truly cares about his subjects. If that Obama were real, he’d have said something about recognizing that issue and promising to do something, then, actually doing something about it (probably with executive power). But the real Obama is a narcissistic ass.

“But, a negative reaction to a heckler, including saying “shame on you” is very appropriate.”

Unless that heckler is going after a Republican, in which case the appropriate reaction is to declare that them a Social Justice Warrior who spoke Truth to Power and make sure the clip of them heckling gets played on the Daily Show and shows up in every FB feed.

Scott, are you saying that speeches given by politicians are exempt from the normal, mature rules of courtesy? The point I’m trying to make has nothing to do with “policing” or libertarian principle or even politics.

Remember when he said Putin was like a bored schoolboy ? Dissing a man who has, I’m sure, personally killed people. Or dissing Netanyahu, he of Israeli special forces. This little twerp is an embarassment.

Does any of this surprise anyone even remotely? Obama acted like a megalomaniacal asshole. A bunch of activists shouted down someone–one of their “own”, even–because they challenged their political master. Things were said that indicated that the politicians seem to think everything they get that is paid for by taxpayers is somehow theirs.

The gathered activists loudly attempted to shush her, then they booed her, chanted “Obama” to drown her out, yelled “Shame on you!” at her, and cheered when she was escorted out.

The struggle session was held off camera.

Jorge Gutierrez noted that the crowd’s response was indicative of the gap between the interests of some mainstream the fascist lgbt community leaders and the needs of immigrants and minorities within the community everyone else.

True. Their definition of good is “whatever Obama wants”. Their definition of justice is “whatever Obama thinks is right”. Whenever a new Democrat president is elected, replace “Obama” with their name, and that will be the new rule. Even if some of them talk shit on Hillary right now, wait until she’s nominated and possibly elected. They’ll shrug their shoulders, say “Republicans would have been worse!” and fall right in line.

Not seeing any upside to having it publicized that the administration is doing nothing to prevent a bunch of rapes that were entirely predictable. Throwing a TG woman in a prison full of horny felons, not entirely constrained by moral constraints, who haven’t had sex with a women in a long time — what could go wrong?

Are you kidding? The press and Team SJW are making deafeningly slurpy sounds at the almighty Cock of the Anointed. He’s so cool in dealing with horrible people who challenge him! So fast with the witty street-wise rejoinder! And the back story gives it a delightful two-fer to the black community, who are pretty chilly towards immigrants and transgenders.

I don’t think it was a White House setup–they’re far too stupid to pull that off correctly–but yeah, this has not been negative for Obama. They news stories on this are like Tiger Beat articles, the amount that they’re fawning over how cool he is in the way he handled it. It’s actually sickening, but it’s not like we haven’t seen that before.

It doesn’t seem convenient at all. They couldn’t be sure that this wouldn’t end up making Obama look like a complete dickhead (which it did, because he is); eve now they are benefiting more from the media’s willful ignorance rather than any spin. The world isn’t so predictable that they would take the risk of doing this, well, for what? It’s not like they gain anything. I don’t think anyone’s opinion of the guy went up after this story. The media safety net just did a marvelous job of making sure it didn’t go down.

Really? “I’m ok with hecklers, but not when they’re in my house eating the hors d’oeuvres and drinking the booze” is considered a good line? That actually sounds like an Obama off-the-cuff standard: pretentious, insulting and lacking any kind of wit or originality.

“Jennicet Gutierrez, an undocumented transgender immigrant, interrupted the president at the start of his speech to point out that LGBT immigrants are being abused in detention centers and to call for their release.”

Well, they wouldn’t have any problems if they didn’t illegally inter our country.

Yeah, I’m with Obama – these guys came to hear him speak, not to question him.

The LGBLT crowd simply does not believe that ordinary rules of civility apply to them. Once they identify an Enemy, then any form of harassment – or worse – is acceptable because they’re The Enemy.

They seem to believe that civility is an instrument of repression designed by homophobes.

The problem here is that most of the people in that room don’t consider Obama an enemy, so they’re shocked that anyone would use the kind of tactics against him that ought to be reserved for Republicans or conservatives, or even heretics like Dan Savage.

“Trans Activist Demands Apology From University For Allowing Dan Savage To Say “Tranny,” Making School “Unsafe”…

“Dan Savage visited the University of Chicago Institute of Politics this week, where according to The Chicago Maroon, he “began discussing his personal history as a gay man” and had used the word “tranny” in “an anecdote about reclaiming words.”

“”A freshman “member of the LGBTQ community” who asks only to be identified as Hex says Savage’s use of the word “tranny” made it feel “unsafe,” and that one of “the most hurtful parts” of the conversation was when IOP fellow and Guardian columnist Ana Marie Cox, participating in the discussion, echoed the word. “I used to make jokes about trannies,” said Cox, according to Hex. (“It” is Hex’s chosen pronoun.)

“Students recall that Hex interrupted the conversation from the audience to demand that the term “T-slur” replace the word “tranny” in the ensuing discussion, claiming that their use of the word was “to threaten me and make me feel uncomfortable in that space.” A dialogue between the three created “a tense atmosphere” and Hex reportedly left the room crying.”

How is it that a college freshman (fresh-it?) is already so thoroughly steeped in victimology bullshit? In my day it wasn’t until junior year or so that someone like this was likely to go off the rails.

When Obama stated “Obama himself also said “Shame on you,” to the heckler like she was a small child having a temper tantrum at a grocery store. He added that he was fine with hecklers, but not when they were in his house “eating the hors d’oeuvres” and “drinking the booze,” which is has some amazingly awful subtext if you think about it for just a few seconds. The president gave you food, so you should be nice to him!” was he saying that from the perspective of the person being an illegal? As in, those gd illegals not only want to jump the fence but have us hold it down for them too? Likely not.

To the extent that they’re showing what they would do if they had political power, I certainly care.

Driving people out of their jobs, suing them for large fines for personal business choices, purging opponents from the civil service…and bear in mind that these are not libertarians who merely choose not to associate with people they dislike. They rely on legal pressure to make their enemies pay large fines, to make their political contributions public the better to intimidate them, etc.

Given all this, the fact that they regard their fellow citizens, who are unfortunate enough to have different politics, as enemies of humanity, then this is cause for concern.

If it were just, “well, we won’t patronize your businesses or the businesses of your employers, but we recognize your legal right to be a homophobe hater poopyhead,” then that could be dealt with. But they aren’t that limited – physical force is in their toolkit.

Also, rather than trying to regulate everything under the sun, maybe the federal govt can focus on protecting the inmates of its own detention facilities from assault and rape. If it can’t even do the latter, why do we trust it to carry out its more ambitious projects?

“And in conclusion, here’s a paragraph from Obama’s prepared speech, read out completely without irony…” You don’t think he reads those things in advance, do you? He probably had no idea he was going to say that until the moment he read it from the teleprompter. He probably still has no idea it bears any connection to what went on before.

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